Congrès Mondial des Études sur le Moyen-Orient et l'Afrique du Nord

Barcelone, du 19 au 24 Juillet 2010

· Institution: Universitat oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Barcelona (Spain)

· Organisateur: F. Xavier Medina

· Sponsorisé par: Departamento de Sistema Alimentarios, Cultura y Sociedad -Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) / International Commission on the Anthropology of Food (ICAF).

· Langue: English/Français

· Description: Throughout the Middle East and the Mediterranean area, the cultures and people have intermingled and carried with them their foods and traditions of eating. The similar cuisines of the Middle East and North Africa stem from ancient cultures and variable climates, ranging from Mediterranean to desert. Religious structures on food and drink have been historically significative and continue to play actually an important role in eating habits there today for Muslims, Jews, and Christians. The impact of colonialism, globalization, and modernization of the foodways will be a major subject of discussion during this panel. This proposal provides huge insight into food habits, the lives of everyday people in the regions through their food culture: major foodstuffs and how they are used; gender roles and cooking; daily rituals of the different peoples; food in the context of religious holidays and life-cycle celebrations; traditional folk and modern beliefs about diet and health round out the coverage...In another hand, the difficult situation and war conflicts in the area are also significant regarding food habits and food problems in everyday local lives.

Chair: F. Xavier Medina (Universitat oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Barcelona)


Paper presenter: Elizabeth Saleh (Goldsmiths, University of London), "A Vineyard cannot be on its own; Sensory Perceptions of land and vine in the Bekka Village of Kefraya"
"A vineyard cannot be on its own", I was informed by a Kefraya village resident during my fieldwork in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon. "Along with the vines must be fig trees and olive trees. Such as my grandmother planted when she was a girl" The Kefraya region is a wine-grape producing hub for the Lebanese wine sector. Since the early 1960s the local Kefraya residents have transformed their land into vineyards. Each year, their grapes are harvested and sold to different Lebanese wineries. Data collected from my fieldwork suggests that the vineyards of the Kefraya village do not only hold an economic value for the residents. Configured alongside monetary profit for the wine grapes are particular sensory perceptions of land and vine.Historical and contemporary agricultural strategies have had an impact upon the Kefraya landscape and also upon how residents conduct their everyday lives. Attached to the shifts in the landscape and transforming social relations are acts of resistance against homogenising forces. These occur in the form of nostalgia and memory. These sentimental values take shape through the transmission of particular sensory perceptions that may for example, relate to identifying the best vine leaf to make stuffed vine leaves or to the types of wild edible plants that grow in the vine yards. Such food products do not only have an economic and nutritious significance to the residents'' diets. These food products also offer different kinds of social relations a means for stability and continuity. For example, great amounts of such food products are frozen and sent off to family members living abroad. This paper offers insights into the sensory practices of people living in the Kefraya region; where conceptualisations of land and vine are enmeshed with notions of belonging.

Paper presenter: Mohey Mowafy (Northern Michigan University), "A Mediterranean without its Diet: The Death of a Good Eating Pattern"
The term “Mediterranean Diet” has become synonymous with “eating healthfully” to reduce risk factors of several chronic degenerative diseases. In addition to its health benefits, the “Mediterranean Diet” is also known to boast an eating plan that is also delightful and enjoyable to follow.
Many of the epidemiologically well-founded health benefits of the “Mediterranean Diet” are attributed to the high-quality nutrition provided by the eating pattern of those who follow the tenets of that diet. For example, individuals following the Mediterranean Diet typically have excellent intake of omega-3 fats, dietary fiber, B-complex vitamins, major and trace minerals, antioxidant, and beneficial phytonutrients.
Perhaps the most remarkable features of the diet are actually a result of where it has geographically originated. As its name unambiguously implies, the diet originated in a part of the world where regional, locally grown fresh foods grown by local small scale farmers predominate, and where fishing is plentiful. The antithesis of this great benefit is the pattern followed more commonly by those who have adopted a system of food production which is far more of an “Agribusness” than it is “Agriculture” whereby the farmer has basically become an endangered species replaced by giant corporations. Such unhealthy methods of food production and processing with little or no regard for the health of those who consume what is produced or the health of the planet we all share have gradually replaced basically all that was once the foundation bricks for what was the genuine “Mediterranean Diet”.
This presentation will discuss the sad story of the death of a good eating pattern when and where food became what Michael Pollan has eloquently described as “food-like edible substances” in his book, in defense of food.